Philip Gborku, the Executive Producer of the ‘controversial’ movie “Atta Mortuary Man” which was seized by National Security operatives, has described the movie as his most popular yet.
Some 13,000 CD copies of the movie were seized by personnel of the Police Striking Force unit on Saturday, May 28, 2011 when it was due for release onto the market at the distributors’ outlet at Opera Square in Accra.
After nearly two weeks of investigations and questioning of the producers at the Criminal Investigations Department [CID] of the Police Service and at the offices of the National Security, the 13,000 copies of the movies were released on Friday June 10, 2011.
In a chat with Multi TV’s PM EXPRESS host, Nii Arday Clegg, the Executive Producer for the movie, Philip Gborku explained that although no reasons were initially assigned for the seizure of the movie, investigators later raised issues of tax evasion and the non-registration of the company which produced the movie.
He noted that after several hours of questioning, he and his colleagues were directed to the Internal Revenue Service to settle matters relating to tax evasion adding that there were no conditionalities attached to the release of the 13,000 copies.
He described the controversy surrounding his movie as a positive one which would boost its sale.
“I expect ... the hype will translate into sales. Of course, everybody’s eager to watch what “Atta Mortuary Man” is about. Was it political or not? Why did national security come in? Why did parliament come in? Why did everybody start talking about the movie?”
Narrating the movie’s storyline, Producer, Eric Asante explained that, the movie revolved around a young man called Atta [played by ace comedian Agya Koo] who used to work in a financial institution. He was approached by a man who said he had discovered a special type of mercury which could produce money. Lured by the offer, Atta took some money from the bank to pay for the ‘mystery’ mercury. The mercury however turned out to be fake leading to Atta's loss of his job.
“He wrote over 400 pieces of letters and distributed them across the country” and finally, Atta landed a job at the morgue “and the story continues from there”.
Mr. Asante however noted that 50,000 CD copies of the movies were produced of which only 13,000 copies were seized on May 28, adding that the remaining 37,000 copies had been on the market ever since the movie’s release late last month.
